An Evaluation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Manufacturing Industry Level of Intelligentization and Influencing Factors: Evidence from China

Abstract

Over recent decades, the application of artificial intelligence methods in manufacturing has led to new spheres of research such as the Internet of Things, Cyber–Physical Systems, and Cloud Computing and Big Data, leading to the so-called Industry 4.0. However, to date, little research has been geared towards assessing the factors that influence intelligent manufacturing on a regional scale. Addressing this problem, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) intelligent manufacturing sector using eleven years (2008–2018) of provincial panel data. The entropy method is applied to three evaluation criteria, namely intelligent innovation, equipment, and profit, to construct an evaluation index system. An analysis of the results revealed that the level intelligentization of the manufacturing industry of the YREB increases yearly, and that intelligent innovations are notably occurring at a faster rate than profits. Disproportional enterprise returns on investment have occurred, which decreases enterprise motivation to be innovative in the first place. Additionally, it was also observed that FDI, financial development, government intervention, and the level of opening-up were the primary factors modulating regional intelligent manufacturing levels.

Impact of Industrial Structure Upgrading on Green Total Factor Productivity in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

“…The explanatory variable industrial structure upgrading (ISU) is significantly positive at the 1% confidence level. This means that the upgrading of the industrial structure plays a significant role in promoting GTFP [ 43 ]. The industrial structure upgrade is the increase in the proportion of secondary industry and tertiary industry.…”

Research on China’s Manufacturing Industry Moving towards the Middle and High-End of the GVC Driven by Digital Economy

“…The digital economy has also been accelerating [4]. According to the statistics of China's Ministry of industry and information technology, the scale of the added value of China's digital economy has increased from CNY 18.6 trillion in 2015 to CNY 39.2 trillion in 2020 [5]. Its proportion in GDP also increased from 27.5% to 38.6%, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.6% [6].…”

Statistical Measurements and Club Effects of High-Quality Development in Chinese Manufacturing

“…This indicates that the higher the level of external openness, the higher the probability that the region belongs to the HQDM high-level club. Opening up to the outside world can increase sensitivity to foreign external shocks; promote technology spillover effects [ 41 ]; open up more resources and markets; allow for the absorbing of capital, advanced knowledge, and new technologies from all over the world; generate collision and integration of various experiences and knowledge [ 28 ], and stimulate local technological progress and industrial upgrading, thus promoting HQDM. Collectively, the level of openness has a significant positive effect on HQDM.…”

“…The principle of the entropy method is to measure index weights based on the information entropy of the original data: the smaller the entropy value, the greater the weight given, indicating that the index is more important. To date, the entropy method has been widely used in manufacturing [ 2 , 28 ], economics [ 17 ], innovation capability [ 5 ], and environmental pollution [ 1 ] fields, among others. The calculation formula is detailed in the following.…”